The Portland daily press., 1887-06-18
THE TURKS MARRIAGE.
No Woman, Not Even the Wife,
Present at the Ceremony.

Marriage receives scarcely more attention
among the Turks than birth and death, and
there is but little embarrassment from the
administrative formalities that preceded and
accompany this solemn act in the West.
There are no bans. no announcements, no
registrations. A man obtains wife just as
he would buy bouquet; but neither the
buyer nor the seller. nor the Intermediary,
asks for receipt. AS it is forbidden man
to enter the harem Of another (eyen If he
were a near relative of the latter to see
young woman and talk with her. there are
no marriages for love and no engagements.
One father meets another father, and says to
him. "Y0u have a son and i have daugh-
ter. If the mother of your son knows my
daughter, let us strike bargain. III she
does not know her, let them see each other,
and then let us close up the business" The
conditions are discussed. the dowry haggled
over. then all the arrangements between the
parents are made and the young people In
trOduced to each other.
Let us add in passing, writes Emile Jul
lizards in the April Cosmopolitan, that among
us the marriages that are contracted in the
great capitals Of Europe especially in Paris,
do not depart far from this programme. In
France, however, man Is still allowed to
behold the object, for the acquisition Of
which, negotiations are in progress. In
Turkey this is forbidden; there, marriage is
a lottery indeed.
Turkish girle are promised usually when
they are very young, even at tender age,
when they are only three or four years old.
If the young bride should happen to die be-
fore her marriage, or be required for the
sultan's harem-for 1t may be promised that
this is a case that breaks all engagements,
and is esteemed as great honor by parents
the intended husband is not expected to
weep over what he loses, for he has never
seen it. When the young girl reaches her
18th or 1871. year, or somewhat later, her
14th year, she receives the nuptial blessing,
and the husband cannot see the face of his
wife until after that ceremony.
No woman, not even the wife, takes part
in the solemnity Of marriage, which Is effect
ed by proxy, delegated to an uncle or to an
elder brother, often with full beard, who
plays ther oil of the bride The parents Of the
couple sign the contract before the imamates
of their quarter in the presence of few
friends, who act as witnesses. The nuptials
are then celebrated by the families with a
calmness and gravity that would be as suita-
BILE for funeral as for wedding.
The sexes never mingle at these festivals.
The men take their pleasure in silence in
their seldmlik; the women a little more
noisily-it is but natural-in the, haremlik.
IL the wife is too young or has delicate
health, she is not entrusted to her husband.
She is quickly shut up at her mothers or at
her mother-in-law's,. sometimes for more
than a year, until il shall please the latter to
reunite her with her husband. 1t even
happens that the nuSDanu mas nau time TO
take his second wife before receiving his
first.
1t is not, however, always happiness that
the young wife finds in her new situation,
where she is often obliged to share with
companions, and even with black and white
slaves, the heart and the attentions Of her
husband. How often have the poor crea-
lures exchanged their maiden seclusion, a
captivity that mother always knows how
to make pleasant, for another seclusion more
narrow, more severe, often aggravated by
the neglect of her husband, or by the
brutality and the pad treatment Of detest-
able guardianl